Corporate users have very busy schedules and, as such, it is quite hard to schedule meetings with a large audience. It is especially difficult when the desired meeting has a long duration due to the large number of agenda items which need to be discussed with the large audience. For instance, if a meeting is to be 3 hours long and the invitee list has 20 or more invitees (“Invitees/Attendees”), it is unlikely in today's business environment that the host (“Host” or “Chair” will be used interchangeably) will be able to find a 3-hour span where each and every Invitee/Attendee will have no conflicts. It is much more likely that the Chair will be able to find a 3-hour span where each Invitee/Attendee will be able to attend a portion of the meeting but not the entire meeting. Further, of the twenty Invitees/Attendees (in the previous example), some Invitees/Attendees may be required for the entire meeting, some Invitees/Attendees may be required for a specific portion of the meeting, while others may be optional for the entire meeting. Furthermore, it may be that an Invitee/Attendee is interested in, though not required for, in a portion of the meeting.
Meetings are driven by meeting agendas. The agenda, which is a list of matters to be taken up at the meeting, is created by the Chair and is usually distributed to a meeting's Invitees/Attendees prior to the meeting, so that they will be aware of the subjects to be discussed, and are able to prepare for the meeting accordingly. The meeting is generally portioned into time segments, each segment being consumed by an agenda item.
A problem arises when an Invitee/Attendee is interested in an agenda item but has a conflict during the time segment designated for that particular agenda item. It is even more critical when the Invitee/Attendee is required for an agenda item. In many cases, however, the Invitee/Attendee has a conflict during the time segment designated for that particular agenda item and is available for other time segments but is not interested in or required for the agenda items designated for his available time slots or segments. As such, the Invitee/Attendee would like to have the Chair reorder the agenda list so that the Invitee/Attendee can attend the meeting during the time segment having the agenda item(s) which the Invitee/Attendee is required for or interested in. Presently, in order for this to happen, Invitee/Attendee would have to contact the Chair personally and request a reordering of the agenda items so that Invitee/Attendee would be able to attend the relevant portion of the meeting. However, with only the one reorder request from the Invitee/Attendee, the Chair would be justifiably hesitant to reorder the agenda as he doesn't have enough information to make an educated decision about the agenda re-ordering given that other people accepted invite assuming the original order. Thus, it can be seen that the ordering of agenda items is very important. It is also important that the agenda be finalized as far ahead of the meeting as possible so that the Invitees/Attendees can plan accordingly.
Thus, it can be seen that it is difficult to discuss/share/collaborate in a meeting with a large audience on multiple agenda items where Invitees/Attendees can only attend a portion of the meeting (“partial meeting participation”). The Chair, who creates the agenda and the order of agenda items, generally includes, in the meeting notice (calendar invites) the list predefined agenda items and the time segments which are assigned to each agenda item. The list, many times, has such agenda items ordered randomly. If partial meeting participation is accepted, and if some of the invitees cannot be present for the entire meeting duration, this agenda items ordering becomes very important.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists to overcome these problems by providing a system and method for reordering meeting agenda items prior to the occurrence of the meeting based upon feedback from meeting participants who are only able to or desire to attend a portion of the meeting and not the entire meeting (“partial participation”).